APOSTLE PAUL AND SAMUEL LAMB

The Apostle Paul speaks candidly about his life experiences in II Corinthians 11.  He speaks with a measure of mockery that he claims to have learned from the three-ring preachers.  He clearly can’t understand why the Corinthians have so much admiration for these rip-off artists.  Consequently, he goes on to compare himself to them.

• Do they brag about being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match.
• Are they servants of Christ? I can go one better. [Paul feels some awkwardness taking this approach.]
• I’ve worked much harder
• Been jailed more often
• Beaten up more times than I can count
• I’ve been flogged five times with the Jew’s thirty-nine lashes
• Beaten by Roman rods three times
• Pummeled with rocks once
• I’ve been shipwrecked three times
• Immersed in the open sea for a night and a day
• In hard travelling year in and year out
• I’ve had to ford rivers
• Fend off robbers
• Struggle with friends
• Struggle with foes
• I’ve been at risk in the city
• At risk in the country
• Endangered by desert sun
• Endangered by sea storm
• Betrayed by those I thought were my brothers
• I’ve known drudgery and hard labor
• Many a long and lonely night without sleep
• Many a missed meal
• Blasted by the cold
• Naked to the weather
• And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches.

He continues:  If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus.

Then, Paul shares one final memory:  Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretus posted guards at the city gates to arrest me?  I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life. 

I read all this and can only imagine the stories this guy could tell!  What a phenomenal life!

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I was privileged to meet such a man during one of our annual conferences while we were in China.  Our meeting was held in Guanzhou which is in extreme southern China.  This is the city where Samuel Lamb’s church met.  Our leaders had arranged a time for us to meet Pastor Lamb.  His church was on a back street and didn’t look at all like a church.  It was a large, common-looking, multi-story building.  I remember going up many passages of narrow steps to a small conference room where we sat at a large table with Pastor Lamb and a few of his leaders and caretakers. 

To bring you up-to-speed, here is an outtake about Samuel from Wikipedia:

Samuel Lamb or Lin Xiangao  (October 4, 1924 – August 3, 2013) was a Protestant pastor in Guangzhou, China. He was a leader in the Chinese house church movement and known for his resistance against the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM)

Lamb was born in a mountainous area overlooking Macau. His father, Paul Lamb, was the pastor of a small Baptist congregation. In the 1940's, Lamb worked with pastor Wang Mingdao.

Lamb was imprisoned for more than 20 years (1955–57; 1958–78) for his refusal to join the TSPM. In spite of "honey-bucket" duty at labor farms or backbreaking work in coal mines at labor camps, Lamb continued to teach.

In 1978, Lamb was released from prison and, in 1979, he restarted the church in 35 Da Ma Zhan, Guangzhou. Because the attendance grew quickly, he then moved the meetings to 15 Rong Gui Li, De Zheng Bei Road. The house church is now known as Rongguili Church, under the name Damazhan Evangelical Church. The house church continued to hold four main services each week, with an estimated attendance of four to five thousand, but was closed on October 14, 2018, and a second time on December 15, 2018.

Starting in 1979, Lamb published a series of booklets called "Voice of the Spirit"; now there are more than 200 booklets.

He died in Guangzhou in 2013, aged 88. For reasons of security and site elements, the date of the farewell ceremony was changed from August 17, 2013 to August 16, 2013, in Baiyun Hall, Yinhe park, Yinhe cemetery, Guangzhou. There were nearly 30,000 mourners in attendance.

He spoke to us in English.  He was a handsome man and very charming – even at his advanced age.  His people were clearly devoted to him and very protective.  He challenged us strongly and allowed us to ask questions.  He sent us away with bags of books and other materials.  We felt very privileged as we toured the church and saw the extremely limited conditions.

People filled the building several times every Sunday, with only a few able to be in the actual room where Pastor Lamb spoke.  His message and the worship was extended to many other rooms via a speaker system.  The pews were just benches tightly packed with very little space between. 

I will never forget this meeting!  He was indeed a modern-day Apostle whose life had impacted tens of thousands – largely because of his willingness to suffer for the Gospel! 

Raise up more like this, Lord!  We need men and women ready to suffer for the extension of Your vital message!

Here are some of the gifts he gave us: